The group collects money from companies like AT&T, the Real Estate Board of New York, Time Warner Cable and CableVision, telling them in promotional materials that they are "changing lives, one scholarship at a time."
The group ‐ called the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, Inc. ‐ instead spent $500,000 in the 2015 ‐ 2016 fiscal year on items like food, limousines and rap music, the Post found.
The politicians refused to divulge the charity’s 2017 tax filing to the Post despite federal requirements that charities do so upon request.
Its main activity is holding and selling tickets to an elaborate party each year intended to raise money for its stated mission of providing scholarships for youth. But year after year, essentially all the money simply seems to go to festivities.
Its chairman, Assemblywoman Latrice Walker of Brooklyn, claimed to have no knowledge of the charity’s failure to fulfill its mission. She told the Post through a spokesman that she "does not have any knowledge of the matter." Walker is running to be the public advocate for New York City, its second-highest elected position and one tasked with investigating complaints.